These U.S. States Send the Most Home Decor to Landfills Every Year-Is Yours One of Them?
Let's be honest, most of us spend a huge chunk of our lives at home, so naturally we want our spaces to feel cozy and comfortable. Whether it's a trendy lamp, throw pillow or that ridiculously affordable candle holder you absolutely didn't need but somehow had to grab during your Aldi run, decorating can feel like a fun little serotonin boost. And when home décor is this accessible (and let's face it, temptingly inexpensive), it's easy to swap things out whenever your style shifts. One minute you're all about cottagecore, and the next you've moved on to minimalist neutrals.
But here's the not-so-cute side of constantly refreshing your space: all that discarded décor has to go somewhere. Sure, donating is always a solid option, but plenty of those impulse buys eventually end up tossed out instead. That means a whole lot of home goods start piling up in landfills. As it turns out, some states are doing a much better job than others when it comes to keeping décor waste in check, while others are contributing far more to the landfill problem than you might expect.
Level Frames, an online custom framing business, decided to do a deep dive into how much home decor is ending up in landfills, and which states are responsible for the lion's share of it.
According to Level Frames' report, roughly 12 million tons of home decor goes into landfills each year in the U.S. alone. It states that furniture is the primary culprit, making up a stagging 19.36 billion pounds of that 12 million tons. From there, it's carpeting and rugs that contribute an additional 4.92 billion pounds to landfills.
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Which states are most responsible for home decor waste in landfills?
The state with the estimated most annual decor waste per person is California, followed by Florida and New Hampshire.
As an aside from the Level Frames report, California just so happens to have the most HomeGoods locations in the U.S.. Florida, on the other hand, has the second most HomeGoods stores in the country. Coincidence? It kind of makes you wonder.
On the other end of the spectrum, the states that contribute the least amount of decor waste per person are Rhode Island, South Dakota and Connecticut. Good job, guys!
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This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 10:05 PM.